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Thursday, November 22, 2012

Yash Chopra's Kaala Patthar

It has been exactly a month since Yash Chopra
passed away and the avalanche of well-deserved tributes has now more or less
subsided. I waited for this time when I would be able to look at his films a
little objectively (though that has never been my forte) and talk about some
aspect that has not been covered in all those tributes.

And after a lot of thought, I decided to
write on that rough hewn solid rock of a film – Kaala Patthar.

It is quite strange that the tributes hardly mentioned Kaala Patthar because it is a perfect example of what Yash Chopra
did really well for the first two-thirds of his career: superbly written,
conflict-driven, emotion-driven multi-starrers. Waqt, Daag, Deewaar, Trishul,
Kabhi Kabhie were all in this mould.

Here I would also like to point out that it is
a little unfair / inaccurate to label him as the King of Romance. Of the 20+
films he has directed, I can count only 8 that were out and out romances, which
included his most mediocre films (Veer Zaara and Dil To Paagal Hai for
example). He pretty much defined that Angry Young Man was. In any list of the
10 Greatest Hindi Films of all time, Deewaar would be a sure-shot entry. How can
you dismiss such a filmmaker as a chiffon-and-snow sort of guy?

Emperor of Emotion would be a more apt
title.

Kaala Patthar – shorn of the fisticuffs
and action – was essentially a tale of very complex emotions and all its
characters had incredible depth.

A disgraced naval officer. An escaped convict.
An idealistic engineer. A lady doctor. A bangle seller. A cards shark. Not only
the stars but even the bit parts (Macmohan as the cards shark, Parikshit Sahni
as a garrulous truck driver) were portrayed with intricate detail.

It is easy to ascribe a large part of
Yash Chopra’s success to Salim-Javed and indeed, their scripts for at least
three of his biggest hits were superb. But if you see Kaala Patthar, you would
realize the value a great director brings to a great script. Of course, the
tension of the rivalries, the exploitation and the eventual climax were
brilliantly structured but Yash Chopra filmed them only as he could.

He framed Amitabh’s shots in close-ups
and low-angles to accentuate his brooding and heighten his already
towering presence. He framed Shatrughan Sinha's swagger in wide-angle shots to bring
about his ‘lord of all I survey’ attitude. The miners’ colony – while not
reaching the realism levels of Wasseypur – was coated with grime. The movie had a distinctly brooding
undertone and the mine (as well as the colony) was decidedly claustrophobic.

Despite that, the pace of the film was breathtaking and he followed Manmohan
Desai’s dictum of entertainment – “one item every nine minutes – to the tee.
Look at the roster of events:

A very underplayed but critical
scene of labour rights (which had distinct shades his earlier hit,
Deewaar).

Multiple scenes of Amitabh’s explosive dialogue
delivery, including one in which he wrenched off a knife from a goon with bare hands.

A symphonic build up of the Amitabh-Shatru rivalry – using tea, beedi and tablets for fever – that eventually ended
in a mind-blowing fight scene.

And of course, the final mine-flooding
scene that was a mindboggling piece of cinema considering the primitive
technology of Bollywood at that time.

Bollywood never believed in genres.
Every hero – especially in the 1960s – did a little bit of everything to make a
complete masala potboiler with action, emotion, music, romance, drama, comedy,
tragedy thrown into one giant blender. Yash Chopra bucked this trend in the
1970s.

Each one of his lead characters remained true to their mental makeup
throughout the films. So, the fiery dockworker remained steadfastly anchored to
his simmering rage while his happy-go-lucky brother sang a couple of songs with
his fiancée. Even in his later films (though a little less so), the young
Kunwar transformed into a sober bore while his bald friend remained resolutely
hilarious.

Kaala Patthar is one of the best examples
of this where a disgraced naval officer took anonymous refuge in a mine.
Amitabh Bachchan’s intensity reached unprecedented levels (even including
Deewaar) as he seemed incapable of smiling for an overwhelming part of the
film. His backstory came much later in the film and Yash Chopra added some subtle
hints of his past (his picking up of an English paperback in the doctor’s
chamber, for example).

When he burst out in Raakhee’s clinic with
that iconic line – “Pain is my destiny and I cannot avoid it” – it hit you like
a sledgehammer.

Kaala Patthar remains his most under-rated film and thanks to it being sandwiched between Trishul and Silsila, almost undiscussed. It is a blazing testimony of Yash Chopra's non-romantic talents and also a fine example of how serious can also be entertaining.

Wish there were a few more like him... RIP, Yash-ji.

Do read my other eulogies of the man who
is undoubtedly my favourite Bollywood director.

I remember the line "pain is my destiny.." and I was like wow.. but I still think lamhe was his best movie... the story, the concept well ahead of its time and only he could have shot Rajasthan so well

Your line "He pretty much defined that Angry Young Man was." I think everybody connected remotely to hindi film industry know that it was Salim-Javed who were the creators and also who DEFINED the persona that was angry young man. I dont understand how can you rate films as Deewaar, Kaala Pathar and Trishul as being the brain child of Yash Chopra. This guy was good for making only romantic movies, exceptions being Ittefaq and Waqt, barring these two the rest were all romantic dramas. I am sure you must be knowing that Yash Chopra wanted Rajesh Khanna to do the role of Vijay in Deewaar and it was Salim-Javed who agreed to give the script on the condition that only Amitabh would do it and not Kaka. Just imagine Kaka in Deewaar...I can only laugh at Chopra's mentality.